Isn't there anything that they can do?

Jason & I ask ourselves that everyday. It is so frustrating, with all of the technology out there, no one can help our baby! During the first 14 weeks of a normal pregnancy, amniotic fluid consists mainly of water supplied by the mother (which explains why my ultrasounds were normal until 18 weeks). After about 20 weeks, fetal urine makes up most of the fluid. By this time, the baby is able to breathe the fluid into the lungs and to swallow it. The fetal urine is critical to the proper development of the lungs by helping to expand the airways and supplying Proline, a critical amino acid to the lungs. If the lungs are underdeveloped at the time of birth the infant will not be able to breathe air properly and will go into respiratory distress shortly after birth.

There are some cases where a mechanical replacement of amniotic fluid (called an amnioinfusion) was used, however in the majority of BRA or RA babies this procedure has proven unsuccessful. There has not yet been a BRA baby (no kidneys and no ureters) that has been reported to survive more than a few days past birth. With each injection of fluid there is a risk for infection to the mother and the baby, as well as miscarriage. The fluid most often used is sterile saline, which doesn’t contain all of the essential proteins and chemicals for lung development. Also, since the baby would eventually swallow all of the fluid, the procedure would have to be performed frequently (every week or so). Even in the event of successful therapy, the baby could still not develop properly and die at birth or shortly thereafter from other complications.